


All will be well when the day is done

by FactoryKat



Series: The Mages' Champion and the Healer's Hope - The Wyatt Hawke Collection [22]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: Anders Being Anders, Awkward Conversations, Comfort, Custom Male Hawke (Dragon Age), Justice!Anders - Freeform, M/M, Post-Dragon Age II, Self-Indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:42:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21655453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FactoryKat/pseuds/FactoryKat
Summary: Justice has some new opinions on Hawke.
Relationships: Anders/Male Hawke
Series: The Mages' Champion and the Healer's Hope - The Wyatt Hawke Collection [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1276382
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	All will be well when the day is done

"Anders?" Hawke was still less than two days post-recovery from their full-scale war against Meredith before fleeing Kirkwall, and the sound of his own voice, still raw from the battle, was nearly foreign to his ears. That he was still drowsy did not help matters. Whatever concoction that his lover had mixed up to aid his rest and keep the pain and nightmares at bay was working as intended. Such was his struggle now. "Wha's going on? Come back to bed…" 

"My apologies. I was unaware that I had disturbed you." Anders twisted his upper body with an awkward stiffness, lacking much of his characteristic grace and cast eyes brimming with haunting blue light towards him. The faint cracks threaded through his partner's skin became a little more evident as he did so.

"Justice." Hawke felt his pulse leap as panic seeped in. "Is everything alright? Is Anders-"

It had become almost customary to see the spirit fronting in times of distress for Anders, but Justice was quick to assuage his concerns. "He is well. He still slumbers."

"Oh…" His hackles were still raised, not yet sure of the situation, but Justice made no moves to do or say anything else. While unnerving, there was almost a strange serenity to his quiet observation through the narrow window of their cabin.

They had made it out of the city and, by Isabela's invitation, boarded her ship with a new destination in mind. Or rather, a familiar one. Ferelden. It had been his idea to go back to the place both Anders and he had called home once, a place that had always been perhaps a bit more forgiving to their kind - to mages. At least the new King had seemed receptive to them anyway, and expressed his desire to help out were it not for his nation still recovering from a Blight. 

Hawke's shoulders sunk subtly, and he exhaled through his nose in a snort that could have easily come from the dog. "So, I assume spirits don't sleep then?" Wyatt reckoned it made sense. What use would a Fade spirit have for sleep? 

His education on Spirits and other beings of The Fade was pretty insufficient. Admittedly, he had been tempted at times to pester Anders and his spectral partner for more information, anything to sate his curiosity. Circumstance saw that there was never an appropriate time for it, however, and Anders wouldn't have been very forthcoming with answers. Understandably so. That meant Hawke still had no real insight into the dynamics of their relationship.

"No. We do not." Curt. Concise and abrupt. Justice was nothing, if not those things. 

"Right," Hawke muttered to himself as he briefly contemplated falling back against the bunk's lumpy mattress and going back to sleep. 

However, his mind was too acutely aware of Justice's weighty presence and the delicate situation he found himself in. It was not for lack of respect towards the spirit, which he had "met" on more than one occasion, but it was his silent guard, poised at the window and wreathed in a faint blue halo that Hawke found rather ominous. So he pulled himself up, propped by the mound of pillows at his back. An effort was made to not draw attention to the hiss that escaped clenched teeth while he did so, but it was in vain.

"It is best to not move. Anders would not wish you to injure yourself further."

Hawke laughed heartily, in spite of the pain stretching across his torso. "Has anyone told you that you have a terrible bedside manner?"

Unblinking pools of cold blue fire bore into him, judged him, weighed every action. "No." A shiver rolled through him as Justice delivered the answer in a flat tenor, and the spirit wearing his lover's face made no obvious hint at his temperament. 

Hawke bristled. Had he offended the spirit somehow? Or was it just in no joking mood? The specter followed up with a curious sight, similar to a face Anders often made whenever he was deep in thought, but it was just this side of wrong and confused the senses. 

"I have not needed to put my observations of Anders' methodology to practice. Would you like that I do so now?"

Palming his face, Wyatt refrained from laughing again, sparing himself the agony that would have followed, and his lips cracked with a smile that threatened to develop. "Nevermind. It's fine."

Silence, save for the crashing of waves against the hull of the ship, permeated every space in the cabin. Wyatt fixed his eyes wearily on the water's surface just beyond the glass, while he reached for something to say. 

Lower and quieter, Justice took that burden from him. "He worries for you."

Of course, Anders worried. That was his very nature, as a healer, a friend, a lover - Hawke chuckled anxiously and feigned a humorous smile he hoped was convincing. "Anders does that a lot. Like a mother hen sometimes. It's kind of cute ... And now the feathers make sense. You know I didn't think about that before-"

Justice interjected, cutting off his ramble. "I believe that you are important to him."

"Well, thanks I-"

"It was a misjudgment on my part, to dismiss you as I had."

"Honestly, it's fine-" 

"I did not wish to see him lead astray from his righteous convictions," He couldn't seem to get a word in, but Hawke was in no condition to argue, nor did he desire to ruin whatever goodwill had formed between them. "But now I see you are virtuous and commendable. One who has done much for his own people." 

"Virtuous? That's a new one." Wyatt erupted into honest laughter that brought with it splinters of pain shooting up through his chest and down his arm. There was no masking it this time, not when the sensation was akin to getting hit by a stray lightning spell. His wound delivered from the Arishok's weapon earned three years before the biggest fight for their lives had healed just fine. Still, no amount of magic could fully repair the damage done internally, leaving him susceptible to further injury or limited use in his arm. He had managed well enough all these years, but after that last battle, Wyatt knew he had overdone it a little...

"You require medical attention, I shall awaken Anders." 

Hawke moved to protest, to insist it wasn't necessary, but the Fade light had already receded, and with it, Justice. It was easy to recognize the transition from spirit to man, as Anders slumped ever so slightly, entirely unprepared for the sudden switch. Also distinct were the various stages of emotion and awareness, from disoriented to confused, then panic when he ultimately realized what was happening.

"Hawke! Are you alright, love?" Anders, in his half-awake state, rushed over.

"It's  _ fine _ , Anders. I'm fine." Wyatt settled back against the bed, inhaling sharply through his nose and exhaling through gritted teeth.

A frown tugged at Anders' lips as he perched on the edge of the bunk. "What happened? And why are you looking at me like that -" he cut himself off and stopped mid-thought as if to consult his own memories? He blinked away the worry that had etched itself onto his face and replaced it with emotions far more complicated. "Oh." The understanding hit him.

Wyatt knew that, on a good day, his lover's feelings on Justice were mixed at best. At worst? Well ... 

Guilt gnashed at him for the exchange that had taken place without Anders' knowledge. 

"I wasn't aware that he did that. To think that this happens… It's unsettling."

"Anders," Hawke hummed, gently, and reached for his hand, brushing a 

thumb across his knuckles. "It's alright. It was perfectly fine. We just talked, believe it or not."

If that put him at ease any, Wyatt didn't know, but the dubious expression on Anders' face remained. "You talked. To Justice."

"Yes."

"Andraste's knickers,  _ why _ ? What even about?"

Pain be damned, Hawke pulled himself up and over to invite Anders back into the bed with him. He needed a little coaxing but relented after a minute of thought. He nestled in close, and Wyatt slipped an arm around him, letting his fingers draw soothing circles into his lover's back. "My father used to say to my mother when she was worried about something; All will be well when the day is done."

Anders's snort in the darkness was soft but only just so. "Wyatt, if you start getting all philosophical on me, I'm leaving."

They shared a private chuckle, and the pre-existing tension in the room lessened with each passing moment they laid together, listening to the sound of each other breathing. "Sorry. Couldn't resist. Anyway, it was nothing, really. I think he likes me now. It only took, what, six years?"

"Really? And here I thought he didn't like  _ anything _ . At least, not anymore…" 

The dry sarcasm (or bitterness) in Anders' voice was not lost on him, so Wyatt squeezed tighter and pressed a kiss to his temple. "What he meant by that was, it'll be okay. Maybe not right this minute, or even tomorrow. But eventually." A scoff followed a sharp pinch along the soft flesh of his arm. "Ow! Hey!"

"I warned you." In the soft glow of the moonlight from their small cabin window, finally having broken through the cloud cover, Anders' coy smile was only scarcely visible.

"What? That was hardly philosophical."

"It was enough."

It was enough, Wyatt thought. Not his jokes, not the pseudo-intellectual wisdom, but the smile. His lover's presence, close and calm, his body pressed up against him as they sailed towards their future, whatever it may bring. They were as much as he could ask for.


End file.
